It was at Calder Race Course some 30 years ago that a 16-year-old with Jersey Shore roots rode his first race.

``My first winner was a horse named Daffy Dac for trainer Luis Olivares,’’ Joe Bravo said. ``It’s one of those things you can’t forget no matter how old you get. My first stakes winner was trained by Frank Costa and owned by Pat Bottazzi.’’

An Eatontown resident, Bravo’s mounts have earned north of $170-million over the past three decades. And on Friday he’ll be in search of his sixth graded stakes win of the year when he rides My Miss Lilly for trainer Mark Hennig in the $1-million Kentucky Oaks, which kicks off Kentucky Derby weekend at Churchill Downs.

Consequently, the 13-time riding champion at Monmouth Park won’t be there when the track opens its 52-day meet on Saturday. He hopes to be in Oceanport for Monmouth Park’s first full weekend of racing, beginning on May 12, although that depends who calls between now and then.

Over the past 28 months, Bravo has 29 graded stakes victories, with top conditioners like Todd Pletcher and Kiaran McLaughlin continuing to value his experience by employing him on some of their best runners.

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In 2015, he rode in 155 races during the Monmouth Park meet, with that number dropping to 101 in 2016 and 81 in 2017. But over the past two summers he’s won at a better than a 25-percent clip along Oceanport Ave., hitting the board 64 percent of the time.

The fact that trainer Mike Stidham, who Bravo has ridden for at Fair Grounds the past few winters, will have 50 horses stabled at Monmouth Park for the first time could keep him closer to home. Bravo has ridden the Stidham-trained Synchrony, a 5-year-old daughter of Tapit, to victories in the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial Handicap and the Grade 3 Fair Grounds Handicap this year.

``I just hope that the schedule works out that I can spend some time down here,’’ said Bravo, who has been riding in New York over the past month. ``I’m excited when I get to come home, it’s great to be a part of Monmouth Park. It’s beautiful.

``I’ve got a lot of luggage. I’m everywhere. I don’t really have a base anymore. Yes, Jersey is home for me but I’m called on to be everywhere right now and I will ride here as much as I possibly can.’’

He picked up the mount on My Miss Lilly in the Grade 2 Gazelle Stakes at Aqueduct at a mile-and-1/8th, the same distance as the Kentucky Oaks. Bravo kept the daughter of Tapit off the pace and wide through the first six furlongs, before making his move on the outside around the turn and pushing her to the line first in a three-horse blanket finish.

Jockey Joe Bravo romps home on his namesake, Jersey Joe B, in the 9th race at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. on Sunday June 11, 2017 for Owner Red Oak Stable and Trainer Greg Sacco.(Photo: EQUI-PHOTO)

My Miss Lilly is the third choice in the morning line, behind Ashland Stakes winner Monomoy Girl (2-1) and Midnight Bisou (5/2), the winner of the Santa Anita Oaks.

``She’s a really nice filly,’’ Bravo said. ``I was really happy when I walked in the jocks room the day I got the mount and pulled up the replay of her last race and she had a lot of traffic trouble with horses in front and she really didn’t have a clear running lane. So one of the things I thought was to just give her some room. I thought she would love the distance, and she did.

``Having just run four races, each race she gets better and better. What makes me feel even better is that Mark Hennig and I have been keeping in contact and she‘s put on weight and gotten bigger and stronger since the race.’’

So while Bravo will jump into the national spotlight on Kentucky Derby weekend, Monmouth Park is home. It’s where Bravo is a legend, having won the 2004 Haskell Invitational aboard Lion Heart, and won a record six straight riding titles, beginning in 1991.

And regardless of where he ventures, he’ll remain a part of the Monmouth Park meet, until it starts feeling like work.